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[RESOLVED] Migrating to VC++ 2008

Hi everyone,

I'm a Computer Science student who has experimented a bit with native C++, creating a few basic applications etc. Recently, I won a competition and received Visual Studio 2008 as my prize. I've been trying to use Windows Forms to create a GUI, because of its relative ease in creating a GUI compared to native C++.

However, I soon discovered that taking the back-ends out of my old native programs and trying to work them with the newly built GUI doesn't really work so well, so I was wondering if anyone could recommend a book for me to read which would help me migrating to this new syntax?

Many Thanks,
Chris Matthews

Edit: I prefer books for learning rather than web tutorials. It's my style of learning.

Last edited by cdm319; January 23rd, 2009 at 02:39 PM.
Reason: Additional Info

Re: Migrating to VC++ 2008

>> recommend a book for me to read which would help me migrating to this new syntax?
Depends on what you really want to learn. It sounds like you created a .Net project. Do you want to learn .Net or a C++ framework for GUI programming?

Re: Migrating to VC++ 2008

Re: Migrating to VC++ 2008

Well, when I created the new project, I soon discovered the new syntax, ie. using ^ and "gcnew" etc... So a book about that. I'm assuming that's what Ixiterra's suggestion refers to, so thank you Ixiterra for your suggestion.

However, if anyone can recommend a decent Framework for GUI programming, that would also be helpful!

Re: Migrating to VC++ 2008

Originally Posted by cdm319

Well, when I created the new project, I soon discovered the new syntax, ie. using ^ and "gcnew" etc...

This is called Managed C++ orcli/c++ which is extension to C++ provided by Microsoft. Besides extensions to C++ it also provides all .NET stuff. If you Google you will find plenty of examples.
If you want mostly do GUI programming, then using C# would have been a better choice then just C++, less painful and your Visual Studio 2008 should have it.

Re: Migrating to VC++ 2008

Originally Posted by STLDude

This is called Managed C++ orcli/c++ which is extension to C++ provided by Microsoft. Besides extensions to C++ it also provides all .NET stuff. If you Google you will find plenty of examples.
If you want mostly do GUI programming, then using C# would have been a better choice then just C++, less painful and your Visual Studio 2008 should have it.

Ok, thanks! Are there any GUI Frameworks for Native C++ that anyone would recommend? I'd quite like to keep the current C++ coding of the program backend, due to the speed considerations when processing large files.

Re: Migrating to VC++ 2008

I had good experience with wxWidgets (free). There is also QT which offers paid and free.

due to the speed considerations when processing large files.

In a grand scheme of things this should be totally irrelevant what language you choose, so don't fall into trap thinking that C++ somehow magically will give all the performance you need. There is a lot of work to get it right and it's very easy to shoot yourself in the foot. For the file reading/writing most likely you will be bound by IO and not CPU.

At the end choose tools and language which is right for the job and not the one you think it may or not give you some performance. Use three P's (Profile, Profile, Profile). Without that you just guessing.

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